Shuffle feed apparatus are utilized for advancing articles such as vegetables, in rows. After the articles have been aligned as they are advanced, the sizing operation begins. The same apparatus is utilized to remove slivers or undersized pieces from the advancing stream of articles. For this purpose adjacent flights are spaced apart to form a sizing opening allowing the passage between flights of those smaller articles it is desired to separate from the main stream.
One example of such an apparatus is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,944,077, Shuffle Feed Sizing Mechanism, issued on Mar. 16, 1976 with Chester Green as inventor. This patent shows a shuffle feed apparatus with the flights being spaced apart to allow small articles such as slivers to be passed between flights and thus be separated from the mainstream of articles being advanced in single file order along the faces of the flights. This patent points out the need to adjust the width of the opening between flights for regulating the size of small articles separated from the mainstream. As shown in this patent, it is known to adjust the spacing between flights by adjusting the thickness of alternate flights. However, this adjustment is laborious because for each flight it is necessary to manually loosen bolts, shift the interlocking members forming the flight face and thereafter tighten the bolts to make the machine operable again. The task is even greater when trial and error must be exercised to determine what size of opening works best for removing the desired size of articles from the mainstream.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,273,711, Shuffle Feed Sorter with Sliver Ejection, issued on Sept. 20, 1966 with Traver J. Smith as inventor, a mechanism is provided for adjusting the spacing between flights of a shuffle feed mechanism. As illustrated in that patent, the adjustment is effected by changing the relative position between the sets of flights, but in widening the spacing between one pair of flights the spacing between the next adjacent pair is narrowed. Thus, while the adjustment can be made during operation, it is only partially successful in that the size of articles ejected is made larger between every other flight pair. It is the purpose of the present invention to provide a shuffle feed apparatus in which the spacing can be easily and effectively adjusted to change the size of slivers or small articles separated from the mainstream of articles being advanced.